The family-run House of Reeves furniture store was torched by rioters this
week, but it is business as usual, says its 80-year-old owner.

On Monday evening Anne Reeves heard a strange wail coming from her 80-year-old husband. Until then, their 24th wedding anniversary had been a delightful day, celebrated over lunch at the National Gallery. Arriving home in the early evening, Maurice Reeves had turned on the television to be greeted by news footage of an inferno in Croydon.

“Shakespeare himself couldn’t have found words for how terrible I felt when I saw our shop ablaze; 144 years of history – gone,” he says, blinking back the tears.

While Anne (his second wife) takes in flowers and cards from well-wishers, Reeves is behind his desk in the scruffy office located across the road from what had been the headquarters of his family furniture business. The bedding section below the offices is all that is left of a store established in 1867 which had survived two world wars, the Great Depression and even the arrival of Ikea. The remaining part of House of Reeves lies opposite the burnt-out listed building. Though saved from the worst of the fire, its broken windows are boarded up, and much of the stock is water-damaged. Reaching it involves crossing a police cordon and weaving through a crowd of photographers from all over the world.

Downstairs, fuelled by sandwiches donated by M&S, Maurice’s sons, Trevor and Graham, are trying to sort out the mess. “What about this Peppa Pig bed?” asks a member of staff. “It’s had it,” says Trevor. He has taken many such decisions since Monday night when he rushed from his home to try to defend the shop from rioters – only to watch helplessly, while waiting for the police and fire brigade to arrive, as the business burned.

Outside, lorries are being loaded up with twisted girders, charred brickwork and the remnants of three floors of sofas, dining tables, wardrobes and the like. The noise is deafening, like a series of avalanches.

In the inner sanctum of his office, where he’s worked for 64 years, Maurice is making do with no water supply and limited electricity. He takes comfort from the outpouring of support from the local community, and his fierce pride in his business. If there is an upside to this week’s spectacle of aggression and greed, it lies in the discovery of those dauntless characters who have faced violence and loss with resilience: Tariq Jahan, the bereaved Birmingham father who appealed for calm; Pauline Pearce, the “heroine of Hackney”, who confronted the rioters with her walking stick and powerful words – and Maurice Reeves, the grand old man, burnt out but not bowed. For him, business must go on. “My priority is to stand up for this country, and to stop this vandalism,” he says.

A sculptor, painter, former Surrey bowler, table tennis champion, Formula One driver and fan of Margaret Thatcher – her biography sits by his desk – Reeves is not easily cowed.

When David Cameron visited Croydon in the aftermath of the riots, Maurice told him: “Your policy is to let people out [of prison].” And when the Prime Minister denied this, Mr Reeves continued: “Excuse me, you are employing Mr Clarke [as Justice Secretary],” before telling Mr Cameron that a policeman had said to him that during the riots he was under strict instructions not to arrest anyone for fear of inflaming racial tensions.

Pulling out old photographs, Maurice delights in telling the story of his family business. E Reeves Ltd was set up by his top-hatted great-grandfather, Edwin, who sold hardware and furniture when Croydon was still a leafy Surrey town. His grandfather then steered it through the First World War and the depression of the 1930s.

The Second World War was difficult, Maurice says. With Croydon airfield close by, the area was heavily bombed. “Half of Croydon was destroyed. I was just 11 or 12 at the time, and remember my grandfather running things from the air-raid shelter beneath the building. The rest of the family were away fighting.”

Maurice started in the business aged 16. He studied sculpture at Wimbledon Art School but soon returned to Reeves furniture store-cum-auctioneers, as it was then. In 1982, he took over from his father. “The first thing I did was get rid of the overdraft my father had built up. I still run it without any debt. I moved out of the auction business – Sotheby’s wanted to buy us but I wanted to continue to serve the people of Croydon.”

In theory, Maurice no longer runs the show. In 1996, he officially retired, handing over to his equally sporty “boys”: Trevor, 56, has driven in Formula One at Monaco; Graham, 52, has a golf handicap of two. “Most family businesses fail because the younger generation is no good,” Maurice says. He trusts his sons, but as pater familias he remains the major shareholder and has the biggest office, which he visits most days. “I come in to help but I always think I know best. A lot of it is making decisions about what to buy. Times have been hard lately, but we don’t make a loss under me.”

The bestsellers in the bed department are the £250-350 doubles, many of them with “40 per cent off” and “end of line” stickers on them. Over the road, the biggest sellers were leather sofas costing £1,000-2,000. While rival furniture shops have come and gone, Reeves has survived, he says, because it is known throughout Surrey, offers personal service – “you are likely to be served by a Mr Reeves” – and because he decided early on to buy stock from China.

The local landmark, which stands on what is known as Reeves Corner, was not deliberately targeted. The rioters had gone to the nearby Whitgift shopping centre, but police had blocked it off. When the mob was diverted down a side road, Reeves was the first substantial building it came to. Although there was nothing to carry off, its plate glass windows were tempting to smash, an armchair was set on fire and even fire-retardant coatings couldn’t prevent the building from going up in flames. “I promised my father I would never sell the business and I’ve kept my word,” Maurice says, his face wobbling with emotion. “Those memories of seeing it burn will stay with me for ever.”

But Maurice Reeves is not a man to stay down for long. He reports with delight that the perpetrators may have been caught, with the help of YouTube images and DNA evidence from blood on broken glass. A man of 21 was arrested early in the week, then a 15-year-old and another 25-year-old man. They are for the courts to deal with. He knows what he must do next. As of today, the demolition should be complete, the road outside reopened and the site of the fire fenced off. He doesn’t know what they will do with the site. Maybe they will rent temporary premises; but there is still the bedding department from which to sell and stock in the warehouse. The House of Reeves website is up and running – with a message of thanks for the support received from “all over the world” – and as soon as the microphones and television cameras have disappeared, he will be ordering more furniture.

“We won’t let this beat us,” he says defiantly. “The message now is that Reeves is open for business.”